The Chance Studio Recording That Launched Otis Redding’s Career

Sometimes, all you need is one shot. That was the case for Otis Redding, who arrived in Memphis, Tennessee as a largely unknown vocalist in guitarist Johnny Jenkins’ band, The Pinetoppers. Jenkins had been summoned to Memphis to record new material with Booker T. and the MGs at Stax Records, but he didn’t have a driver’s license, so Redding drove and helped out with the equipment.

An off-the-cuff session creates a star

The year was 1962, and Memphis’s music scene was alive with possibility. That night at Stax, the session with the MGs ran late, and some performers had to leave for other gigs. Somehow, near the end of the session, Redding made his way to the mic. No one knows exactly how, though the story goes that Redding had spoken to several people about his vocal abilities, and Stax co-founder Jim Stewart gave him a chance to cut a few songs.

At first, Redding performed a rendition of “Hey Hey Baby,” but it didn’t sound distinctive enough for listeners to notice. Then Redding asked musician Steve Cropper to play some “church chords” on the organ, and began singing his original song “These Arms of Mine.” 

“My hair lifted around three inches,” Cropper later recalled. “I couldn’t believe this guy’s voice.” 

A star is born

The performance moved those listening enough that Redding was soon signed to Stax subsidiary label Volt Records. His first single was released in October 1962, and experienced a steady climb in radio play over the next few months. 

From there, Redding’s career took off. His songs “Pain In My Heart” and “That’s How Strong My Love Is” were hits, and he became a major star in the pop and R&B world.

In 1967, he spent a week living on a houseboat in Sausalito, California, decompressing from an exhausting tour and playing the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band on repeat. While there, he began writing the track “(Sittin’ On) the Dock of the Bay.” Shortly after recording the song, Redding set off for some gigs in Nashville, Cleveland, and Madison. The private plane Redding took to the latter city went down en route and crashed in Lake Monona, killing everyone except trumpet player Ben Cauley. Redding was just 26.

“(Sittin’ On) the Dock of the Bay” was released posthumously and shot to the top of the charts. Further unreleased material was shared in the years that followed, cementing Redding’s legacy in the pantheon of all-time music greats.

Yet it all began back in a late-night studio session in Memphis when some people took a chance on a new, unknown talent.

“He wasn’t the Otis Redding that we know today,” Cropper recalled of that first night when he heard Redding’s one-of-a-kind voice. “At that time, he was just the singer in Johnny Jenkins’ band. We auditioned him, and they asked me to hear him sing—and he started singing ‘These Arms of Mine.’ Man, that was it.”